Spool



Patented Dec. 8, 1931 GEORGE D. ATWOOD, F BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

SPOOL Application tiled J' une 14,

This invention relates to improvements in spools or bobbins andparticularly such spools or bobbins'as are used for receiving andcarrying fine silk, rayon, yarn, etc. For

convenience the term spool will be hereinafter used and as `used willinclude bobbins.

One form of spool heretofore used for the purposes for which my improvedspool is designed has consisted of wood with the barrel and flangesthereof in one piece. Such spools are very expensive to manufacture, somuch so that they have to be sold to users of silk, rayon, etc.hereinafter called thread, with the agreement on the part of themanufacturer of such thread that he will redeem them, when called uponby the user thereof todo so, at certain stipulated redemption prices.

Later forms of spools with hard wood barrels and heavy fibre ends anddesigned for the same purposes as these solid wooden spools, have beensuggested and used commercially.` These spools have the advantage overthe solid wooden spools in that they are cheaper to manufacture butgreat care and skill has to be exercised in their manufacture,particularly to secure a close fit between the barrel and its flanges soas to avoid gaps between them in which the thread might be o caughtwhile being wound upon the spool, with the result that it would bebroken when unwound. As a matter of fact, according to ordinarypractical manufacturing methods it has not been possible to secure sucha close ,Contact or fit between ,the barrel and its flanges as willavoid the presence of such thread-catching gaps and, because of this, ithas been necessary to interpose a washer of o soft, yielding materialbetween the barrel ends and flanges. Because of the character of thematerials used (hard wood for the barrel and heavy fibre for theflanges) land because of the need for this Washer between the barrel andits flanges the manufacturing cost of such spools has been very high,although considerably less than that of manufacturing the solid spoolsreferred to, and this high manufacturing cost has been objectionable,not onlyfor the ordinary reasons 1929. Serial No. 370,793.

concerned with manufacturing costs, but for the following additionalreasons.

Because of their high cost such spools, like the solid wooden spoolsreferred to, must be and are supplied by the thread manufacturer tousers thereof with an agreement for the redemption thereof by suchmanufacturer after the user has finished with them. Such redemptionagreement requires the thread manufacturer to invest a large amount ofcapital in such spools and to keep a fund constantly on hand for theirprompt redemption as and when called upon to redeem them by the user. Inaddition to this these spools are frequently used over and over again bythe user with the result that when returned by him to the threadmanufacturer they are practically worn out and useless.

The high manufacturing cost thereof also presents a serious and reallyinsurmountable obstacle vto the export of finished thread bymanufacturers thereof wound on such spools because of the expenseinvolved in the shipment of such spools back to this country forredemption.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a spool having thenecessary accuracy in fitl between the barrel and flanges to avoid l thethread-catching gaps before referred to and the manufacturing cost ofwhich will be so low that they may be thrown away by the user, thusdoing away with the requirement of redemption existing in the case ofthe solid wooden spools and the hard wood spools with heavy fibre ends.

These ends are attained by the provision of a spool having a barrel ofyielding material, such as cardboard, for example, and sheet metalflanges having annular recesses on their inner faces into which the endsof the barrel are forced, the width of these recesses being much lessthan the thickness of the barrel material so that when the flanges areforced onto the barrel the material of the latter will be considerablycompressed by the walls or shoulders of the recesses and such a tight orclose fit and intimate contact secured between the two that nothread-catching gaps will appear or occur in use between the barrel andflanges.

\ should be slightly tilted out of true parallelism with each other ortrue right-angular relation to the barrel, so long as pressing contactcontinues between the flanges and the barrel ends, all portions of thebarrel endsbeing Isuitably compressed although some may be morecompressed than others.

To this I may add that a spool with flanges so tilted out of suchparallel or right-angu- -lar position will, under the outward pressureexerted by the wound thread on the inwardly tilted parts of the flanges,have such parts moved outwardly and the other parts movedcorrespondingly inwardly and thus have such flanges moved or returned totheir true parallel or right-angular position. And this will be donewithout disturbing the desired gapavoiding contact ,betweenthe flangesand the Vbarrel ends because those parts of the compressed ends thereofbearing against the inwardly tilted parts of the flanges will expandsufficiently to continue in intimate, gapavoiding contact with the innerfaces of the flanges.

A spool such as this is not only vimproved in construction but its costof manufacture, relatively to that of the spools before referred to withhard wood barrels, is so materially reduced as to do away with thenecessity of the redemption a eement before referred to, its cost omanufacture being so low that such spools may be thrown away after usewithout any appreciable loss to the user. This is particularly true ifsheet metal flanges be used, as I prefer to do, although the presentinvention, broadly considered, is not to be so limited.

The material of the barrel willalso preferably have a soft surface inwhich fin ers with which the spool flanges are provi ed-may embedthemselves, such fingers being rovided as a safeguard in spoolsgenerally aving barrels with attached flanges against thread beingcaught in gaps between the barrel and flanges and as an additionalsafeguard in spools like that of the present invention for thesamepurpose in case, after manufacture thereof, or during shipment or usethereof, the spools should developl wide gaps actually taking the innerfaces of the flanges out of contact with the barrel ends.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of a spool (full size, for certainpurposes) embodying the present improvements;

Figure 2 is a vertical section of the same on the line 2 2;

Figures 3 and 4 are enlarged longitudinal sections of one 'end of thespool. Figure 4 showing the spool flange tilted out of true parallelismwith the other flange or true right-angular relation to the spoolbarrel; and

Figure 5 is a cross section on the line 5-5 of Figure l.

In said drawings 1 represents the barrel and 2 the flanges of the spool,while 3 represents a tubular rivet through which the barrel and flangesare connected together. The barrel is made of yielding material,preferably cardboard or other cheap fibre, so that it will yieldlengthwise or be compressible lengthwise at its ends, but, at the sametime, be sufficiently rigid or sti crosswise to prop- Ierly receive andsupport the thread wound thereon. The flanges 2 are of sheet metal, foreconomy in the manufacture of the spool. The flanges 2 areprovided ontheir inner faces with recesses 2a for the ends of the barrel and theserecesses are, as will be observed, of very much less width than thethickness of the barrel material.

In assembling the barrel l, flanges 2 and tubular rivet 3, the barrelends rest against the inner faces of the flanges in line with recesses 2and the rivet 3 is then passed through the barrel .with its endspro]ecting beyond the outer faces of the flanges. The flanges are thenforced with considerable pressure against the barrel ends which arethereby forced into and compressed .endwise by the walls of the recessand distorted or bent laterally, inwardly and outwardly. The ends of therivet 3 are then turned downward against the outer faces of the flangesand the recessed ends of the flanges held in intimate contact with thecompressed ends of the barrel, which make a close, yielding fittherewith, without any thread-catching gaps between them and theflanges.

In the cutting of the spool barrels and their flanges one cannot dependupon securing perfect barrel ends and flanges which will accurately fit,as, for example, in the case of the s ools with hard wood barrels andhea filgre ends before referred to, where, for t 's reason, it has beennecessary to interlpose soft washers between the barrel and flanges.Such unevenness, however, is of no importance in a spool embodying myinvention because, as before pointed out, even if it is present, thebarrel ends are compressed at all points sufficiently7 to secure thetight fit between the barrel and flanges necessary for the avoidance ofany thread-catchinggaps between them.

Also, if in the course of manufacture, or otherwise, a flange should betilted out of proper position, as shown, for example, in Figure 4, itwill be restored to pro er position by the thread as wound upon t espool, the outward pressure of the thread against the inwardly inwardlytilted part of the iiange movoutwardly and the other part y ange isshown in Figure 4to that in which barrel and compressing said ends andoutwardly to it is shown in Figure 3. Such restoration of the flange toproper position will not disturb the necessary fit or contact between itand the barrel ends because the heavily compressed part of the barrelend in line with the inwardly tilted part of the flange will expand andcontinue such contact with it as it is forced outwardly.

What I claim is: Y

spool comprising a' barrel, sheet v metal ianges, and means extendingthrough the barrel and unitin it to the flanges, the barrel bein ofyielda le material and the flanges provide with annular recesses forreceiving the ends of the barrel, said recesses being substantiallynarrower than the ends of the Vinwardly a. substantial exten whereof, Ihave hereunto set GEORGE D. ArwooD.

In testimony my hand.

